


Exorcist

by TheQueen



Series: Fics I Wrote in A Dream [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Cults, Demonic Possession, Demons, Drabble, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 04:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16110491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: One day Shiro looks in the mirror and he doesn’t see himself. He sees Kuro.





	Exorcist

One day Shiro looks in the mirror and he doesn’t see himself. He sees Kuro.

Shiro’s immediate thought is he must be going crazy. He must be hallucinating this strange doppelganger with bloody teeth and black-black eyes. It doesn’t help that he sees Kuro in every reflection. Mirrors. Windows. Floors. Water. 

He has a hard time leaving the house. Stops going to work. Covers everything with cardboard and sheets.

People ask him whats wrong, but he can’t tell them. He doesn’t want to admit it outloud. 

Slowly he starts to see the reflection outside of the mirror. He swears he can feel someone’s breath on the back of his neck or see a smile in the corner of his eye. 

He starts looking sick. He loses weight. He’s eating the same. Delivery food should honestly be making him heavier, but he’s only losing muscle mass. 

Finally his friends stage an intervention. Lance and Keith threaten to break down the door. They tear down the cardboard and sheets, wrap Shiro in blankets and force him to have a conversation with something that can talk back.

When they leave, the reflection smiles while Shiro frowns.

For the first time he hears it speak. “I like them.”

Shiro gets desperate. Turns to the Cult. He finds something online. It feels like a stretch, but he has to do something. He can feel himself wasting away. 

He contacts this Haggar woman from the contact at the bottom of the screen. She listens for a few minutes and then tells himt to come to her. She’ll give him what he needs. 

He goes because he doesn’t have a choice.

She’s a pale woman, faded. But he can tell she was beautiful once. She  brings him to a man named Zarkon. Shiro doesn’t think its his real name, but he doesn’t ask. 

Zarkon promises him hope. And all the red flags are there. Zarkon is creepy and has a tendency to stand too close and touch too often. But Shiro is desperate. And he won't let Kuro touch his friends, especially not Lance and Keith.

So Zarkon tells him he’ll fix his little demon problem. In return,  Shiro just has to do these few things for him. And Shiro agrees blindly. He's so weak these days. It's a miracle that he's managed to stay awake long enough to meet with Zarkon in the first place. And Zarkon hands him a few vials and makes him promise to drink them every night and report back to Haggar once a week. 

It doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s probably just some sort of herbal medicine, Shiro convinces himself. Maybe a new juice cleanse.

And...it works!

Kuro disappears after Haggar visits Shiro's house. And every night as promised Shiro drinks one of the little vials that taste kind of nice. He gains his strength back. Starts sleeping. Finds a new job. Nothing like his old one. Just working a counter at a Burger King. But it's more than he's had in so long.

Months pass. His friends are so happy he's safe. And Shiro makes the decision to start dating Lance. He almost died. How could he let this second chance go to waste?

Lance is on cloud nine. Shiro is safe and happy and healthier than ever. They're helping him get his life back. And Shiro loves him so much! It’s like a dream come true. After everything Shiro has been through it feels like the happy ending they deserve. 

Then one day Lance wakes to the feeling of two cold hands around his throat. He opens his eyes and screams at the sight of his lover baring down at him. He begs Shiro to get off him. Clawing at Shiro’s hands (so cold... unnaturally cold). 

Shiro doesn't react. Doesn't seem to feel the cuts Lance digs into his hand. Doesn’t seem to notice the struggling body underneath him. 

Then as soon as it starts it stops. Shiro falls over, passes out against the bedspread. And Lance just lies there gasping, terrified to move.

He doesn't sleep that night.

So Lance leaves shaking and uncertain, terrified that there is something wrong with Shiro that he's been hiding. Maybe Shiro hasn't gotten better. He's just got better at hiding it. He’s shaking as he pulls on his clothes for the day, confused. He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know who to tell.

Then he makes the mistake of looking in the mirror. Behind him stands a yellow eyed Shiro. Lance screams, turns around. Nothing. He looks back in the mirror and Kuro is standing next to him and Lance can feel the cold through his shirt.

Kuro introduces himself to Lance, tells him he'll help lance save Shiro for a price. See kuro wants Shiro but now...now he also wants Lance. But even more than that, he wants Zarkon dead. 

Lance is terrified and refuses. 

Kuro laughs. "You'll be back."

So Lance confronts Shiro, demands Shiro tells him what’s going on. When Shiro hears that lance saw Kuro, he panics and runs to Zarkon. This time Zarkon's price is higher. He wants Shiro. For a year Shiro will obey everything he says, live with him, train under him.

“If I’m to save your life I might as well benefit from your existence.”

See the potions have been making Shiro strong, stronger than any human. Transfomring Shiro into the perfect vessel for Zarkon's champion. He hadn’t expected it to work so well, but now that he has who is he to turn down the opportunity.

In the haze of rage and fear, Shiro agrees. Anything for Lance

When he returns, Shiro promises Lance everything will be alright now. Lance doesn’t believe him. 

Lance stays the night at Shiro's again. This time he wakes to Shiro's hands on his wrists just holding him down, pressing him into the bed so Lance can feel the weight of straining bone.

Lance goes to Kuro the next day.

Kuro smiles and makes Lance promise. Three months with him and he'll save Shiro's life. All he needs is a vessel. All he needs is a sacrifice. “Bring me a body.”

Lance goes to Keith. He can't do this by himself. Keith will do anything for his Shiro, the man who once saved him. They find a young man on the streets. Healthy enough. College age. Probably a drop out of some kind. Someone no one will miss.

Keith and Lance drag Rolo tied up and knocked out to Lance's house. They drop Rolo in front of the mirror Kuro is standing in and they watch in horror as Kuro reaches through the mirror. In the reflection Kuro looks fine, inhuman but healthy. But as his hand moves through the mirror they watch in horror as the hand begins to rot too fast, flesh falling away to reveal white bone. The stench of death heavy in the air.

They watch as the hand touches Rolo They watch as Rolo wakes and starts screaming. The area Kuro touches turning black. And the hand slowly regaining life. The black spreads. More of Kuro steps through the mirror. 

The process takes no more than six minutes. It feels like years. The end result is a new man standing in Lance’s bathroom: Shiro's build, Rolo's voice and eyes.

All this time, Shiro has been waiting for Lance. He hasn't gone to Zarkon just yet. Zarkon told him the next time he sees Lance to give him this amulet. It’s the last time he’ll see Lance and he wants to say goodbye.

So Lance goes to Shiro and brings Keith on Kuro's orders. They need to distract him while Kuro goes to Zarkon. 

They talk for a moment. Lance trying to get answers. Keith trying to understand what is happening all while a strange sense of dread seems to grow and grow. But Shiro won’t say a word, just says he’ll be going away for a while and will be back. He promises to come back. 

When Shiro realizes the conversation is going nowhere, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the amulet to give to Lance. But before anyone can react, Keith grabs. It had been calling him, urging on that sense of dread.

Lance and Shiro watch in horror as Keith's hand starts to crack like stone. He screams, dropping the amulet and cradling his hand against his chest.

Shiro explodes. His anger clouds his judgement, He feels the power of Haggar’s potions in his blood and moves before his rational thought can stop him. All he knows is Zarkon tried to hurt his lover and his brother. He won’t let him try again.

Lance and Keith give chase, hot on his tail, begging him to stop. Shiro is too far gone to listen.

When Shiro arrives Zarkon is nowhere to be found and Haggar is pinned to the door with an ax. There are signs of struggle everywhere in the shop and in the house above.

Shiro only grows angrier and he starts running through the house, scarring Keith and Lance. He's getting worked up. He turns to Keith and Lance who he sees are too calm and demands to know what they did.

Lance tells him about Kuro and Shiro slams Lance against a wall and demands why he thought it was a good idea. Lance starts crying and Shiro freezes. It’s the first time he's ever hurt Lance while conscious

He takes eight steps back and drops to his knees. It’s the first time he realizes something is wrong, that Zarkon has done something to him.

Keith has been oddly quiet this whole time. Lance is crying. He can barely see. Shiro is staring at the floor, horrified with himself. 

They hear a soft sort of laughter and before either of them can react, Keith is picking up Shiro by the neck, "You thought you could escape from me?"

Shiro struggles to rip Keith's arm off of him while Lance stands paralyzed against the wall in fear. Keith laughs, eyes glowing a strange purple, face twisted in a cruel smile, "Did you think i'd allow you out of your deal so easily shirogane? Think a simple ghoul could get rid of me?"

Casually he flings Shiro against the fall wall and turns to Lance, "Though I can see why he'd give everything up for you. Such a pretty face. Maybe I'll keep you as well. Would you like that Shirogane?" Keith laughs, "I imagine you would. Possessiveness should be an added trait in the last few mixtures. Haggar was very curious. A pity she'll never live to see the results."

"Who...who are you?" Lance demands but Keith ignores him. 

Lance watches Keitn kneels down next to where Shiro is crumbled against the floor, "I will enjoy seeing you fight as my champion."

That's when Shiro puts it together, "Zarkon?"

Lance shouts, confused, "Who is Zarkon?"

"I'm the one you sent that ghoul to kill," Zarkon-Keith growls before suddenly teleporting in front of Lance and pulling him close by his chin, "Losing a body still hurts you know. You best make it up to me."

As Zarkon-Keith brings Lance in for a kiss, Shiro roars. “Don’t touch him!”

The fight turns brutal fast. Shiro may be stronger, fueled by his inhuman angry, but he has no finesse, no intelligence. It's like fighting a raging bull. The longer the fight drags on, the faster Shiro tires himself out as Zarkon-Keith plays cat and mouse games.

It’s as the fatigue settles in and Shiro can barely see through all the blood that Kuro arrives, different from how Shiro remembers him but he'd know those eyes anywhere. Smiling in just the corner of his vision. Kuro whispering "Let me in. Let me fight."

_ Never _ , Shiro thinks but he's not getting anywhere. And Lance is in the room. Lance is in danger.

Kuro keeps poking, "Let me help you protect them."

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Because I want to see Zarkon dead.”

It's the most honest thing Shiro has heard in a long time. Shiro lets Kuro in

With kuro's guidance, Shiro is able to control the demon rage and strength that has possessed him. They start landing hits. But Keith's body is not meant to withstand the drain Zarkon's presence is putting on it. Nor is it capable of withstand the blows Shiro lands. Zarkon is pushing his temporaray vessel to its limit and Keith is breaking.

Only Lance notices. He sees it the moment Keith's leg shatters and he keeps moving. Lance realizes he needs to end this.

But how? To step forward would be suicide. To leave would be suicide. He presses himself flat against the wall and cries. 

Then she arrives: the woman they'd found hanging on the wall. Her long white hair flowing behind her like a cape. Her skin a deathly pale. She reaches out to him in his hiding place, obscures his vision of the fight.

"My master betrayed me" she tells him "killed me for a few more moments of life despite everything I have gifted him. Take my revenge young one. Take my revenge and slit his throat."

And in that moment Lance saw all: every beginning and ending. Every past and future. Every answer. He screams as she presses all her knowledge, all her skill, into a brain too young to hold it. Feels himself die and be reborn again and again as she fills him with lifetimes of power.

What feels like an eternity is truly only a few seconds as his vision clears and the world frays blue on the edges.

In the center or the room, Zarkon continues to hurt two of the people he loves most.

And Lance... Lance who has learned and seen so much too quickly. Lance, who is now greater Lance and yet infinitely smaller than who he was before, this Lance will not stand for it.

So Lance calls upon the energy of the universe, feels it form and fall from his hand like blue lightning.

"That is enough," they commands, stepping forward and feels the earth quiver beneath them. The two before them freeze like prey before a true predator. They place a steadying hand on their lover's chest to expel Kuro and his corruption. It flying out of Shiro in a cloud of black ash as Shiro drops to his knees, body screaming in protest having long past pushed his limit

And then they turns to Zarkon.

"Haggar," Zarkon-Keith has the gales to greet them like a friend, has the brash to open their arms as if welcoming a lover, "I knew you would return to me."

And oh yes...They have returned. But not as lover. Slowly they reach out their clawed hands and dig their nails into the very essence of the soul they once treasured beyond all else. They slip their magic beneath the cracks and let's Zarkon spill out and out, separating the two souls

Keith falls to the ground with a scream, his injuries showing themselves for the first time. Splintered bones and broken skin.

And then there is Zarkon, a beautiful purple glow. Calling to them as always. But this time they reach out with their other hand, take the soul between their palms. And for a moment, Lance--just Lance--sees it. Another way, another answer. A way to save this soul, to wipe away the corruption

To perhaps gift peace.

But Lance is not the good person he thought he was. His heart hurts for Keith who lays in puddle of blood before him, for his lover who lies in a mess of limbs behind.

They take the soul in their hands and lets the rage of the universe build and build and build. They let Karma have it's turn.

And watches in numb fascination as Zarkon splinters and turns to black ash

Slowly the energy leaves Lance. His knees feel weak. His hands tingle. He falls. "It's over," Lance mumbles. He turns so he can see both Shiro and Keith, "It's over now."

The paramedics come. They find Haggar's body. And then Shiro and Lance and Keith. Takes them all into the ambulance. Shiro passes out from the bloodloss. Keith crashes twice before they stabilize him. Lance over hears one of the paramedics insist the leg is salvageable. Everything it seems, is salvageable.

As he settles into the gurney they’ve strapped him in, Lance feels a hand in his hair. Haggar's smile is blinding, "You will be my greatest pupil yet."

 

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a fic that I planned out like back during season 1. I always wanted to write it but it was too big a project to take on when I had so many others, so I decided to clean up the outline and post it here. I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Please let me know what you think.


End file.
